Senior medics and safety campaigners fear patient safety is being jeopardised
by relying on private firms to answer emergency calls as expenditure doubles
in three years

Spending on private firms to provide 999 ambulances across swathes of Britain has doubled in three years, an investigation has found.

Senior medics and safety campaigners said they fear patient safety is being jeopardised by a heavy reliance on commercial firms to answer emergency calls.

An investigation by The Telegraph reveals that the amount spent by the NHS on private and voluntary services to provide 999 care has risen from £24m to £56m in three years.

The College of Emergency Medicine last night said the routine use of the firms was “incredibly wasteful and potentially dangerous” – with too little oversight of private firms which provide the service.

Ambulance trusts said they had litttle choice, warning of a “national shortage of paramedics”.

Freedom of Information disclosures reveal that seven of England’s 10 ambulance trusts have increased spending on commercial firms and voluntary ambulances since 2010.

In London, around 4,000 emergency calls a month now receive a response from a private ambulance, after an 11-fold increase in spending on such firms from £829,000 in 2010 to £9.2 million in 2013.

In the South East Coast area, spending rose from £1.5 million to £9.5 million, while in East of England, it increased from £4.5 million to £11.2 million.

The firms are staffed by former NHS paramedics and ambulance technicians, “moonlighting” health service staff, and others who privately undergo training courses to become a technician, which gives them more basic skills than a paramedic.

There are dozens of such firms in Britain, but until recently most have been used by the health service as “patient transport” transferring non-emergency patients to and from hospital.

When in opposition, Conservative shadow health ministers said it was “beyond belief” that blue-light NHS services had begun to be contracted out to private agencies.

Five years ago, one quarter of ambulance trusts used private and voluntary agencies for 999 calls.

Now all ambulance services are using such firms.

Patients groups’ last night said they were “deeply concerned” by the trend, fearing that some of the firms did not adequately train staff, while others had a poor record for hygiene and safety.

Dr Cliff Mann, President of the College of Emergency Medicine, which represents Britain’s emergency doctors, said: “When trusts began using private firms for 999 calls they said it was only as a ‘last resort’ but the scale here is nothing is like that – it’s deeply concerning.”

“It is incredibly wasteful – because trusts have to pay a premium to use these agencies – and it’s also potentially dangerous because they aren’t part of the normal system of monitoring so it’s harder to know how safe they are.”

Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association said she was “shocked” by the scale of the spending, and feared that the use of private firms was putting patient safety at risk.

He said: “When people dial 999, they don’t expect a private ambulance to turn up. But that is increasingly what is happening. The tendering out of blue-light 999 services provides proof that the Government sees no limits on the extent of privatisation in the NHS.”

Jason Killens, Director of Operations, from London Ambulance Service said: “Our first choice is always to use our own staff to respond to emergency calls. However, with increasing demand and a national shortage of paramedics, we also contract carefully selected private ambulance crews to respond to incidents.”

Other ambulance trusts said they were attempting to recruit more staff in order to reduce the use of private ambulances.

A spokesperson for NHS England said: “Local ambulance trusts are responsible for providing a high quality, safe service for patients, appropriate to specific local needs.”A Department of Health spokesman said: “This Government has stipulated for the first time that they register with the Care Quality Commission and must meet the same essential standards of quality and safety that all ambulances do.”